SFD negotiating $200M fund from WB for labor-intensive employment

CAIRO – 3 April 2017: Egypt’s Social Development Fund (SFD) is negotiating with the World Bank (WB) to provide a $200 million fund for labor-intensive employment projects, SFD Secretary-General Nevine Game said Sunday.

Game's remarks were made on the sidelines of a visit paid by a high-level WB delegation to Aswan, led by Vice President for Human Development Keith Hansen. Hansen inspected SFD projects in the Upper Egyptian governorate with Aswan Governor Magdy Hegazy.

The delegation commended the performance of the SFD in implementing the government-backed project on labor-intensive employment, in addition to its contribution to providing job opportunities that would limit unemployment among citizens.

The SFD has since February pumped about 29 billion EGP to fund nearly 2.5 million small and micro enterprises (SMEs) nationwide, Game said, noting that almost four million job opportunities have been created as a result.

The WB has provided Egypt with a fund of 1.3 billion EGP ($71.62 million) for labor-intensive infrastructure projects, which opened up about six million job opportunities, Game added. The bank also granted a 206million EGP fund for social development projects that helped provide approximately seven million other opportunities, she noted.

Also, the WB contributed to the implementation of about 150,000 SMEs with a fund of four billion EGP, which would help about 273,000 citizens have work, she added.